The new champs

Angels not your run-of-the-mill World Series team

SAN FRANCISCO -- They barge in with their shocking red and their fake boulders in center field and that cute little "A" with the halo on their hats. And that … that monkey. That silly little pumped-up monkey.

This is not your average World Series team.

The Anaheim Angels have arrived in the Fall Classic with not a thing about them that is even close to classic. They are not particularly fast or particularly strong. Their pitching staff is not all that fearsome, though their bullpen is the best in the American League.

Their history is filled with fantastic failures. For the entire 42 years they've been playing in Southern California, they've been a second-class citizen in their own city -- and a lot further down than that in their own state. Heck, they were no better than an afterthought in their own division this season.

But here they are, the wild card, the American League champs, waiting for either the San Francisco Giants or St. Louis Cardinals. The Anaheim Angels are a few games away from being World Series champions, for Gene Autry's sake.

Video Click the image to launch the clip Game 5 hero Adam Kennedy feels special to be a contributing factor in the Angels' win. Start Shortstop David Eckstein describes the Angels as a gritty team with tough pitching and timely hitting. Center fielder Darin Erstad says the Angels' World Series berth is special for the fans and both current and former players. Video Plus Visit Video Plus for all the latest video and audio.

"Oh, man. This is tremendous," said Adam Kennedy, Sunday's hero. "We worked hard the last few years to bring it all together, and we finally got it done."

The Angels are here, first off, because they deserve it. They won 99 games this season; they stayed with the hottest team in the league when the Oakland A's were ripping off a stunning 20 wins in a row. The Angels grabbed the wild card and bludgeoned the favored New York Yankees with it, smacking them around in a four-game divisional series win that probably wasn't that close, really.

And then Sunday, when everybody's darlings, the Minnesota Twins, put up three runs in the top of the seventh inning in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, threatening to take the series back to the raucous dome in Minneapolis, the Angels turned around and put up 10 runs in the bottom half of the inning.

Game, set, World Series here they come.

Kennedy, their little second baseman -- aren't most second basemen little? -- had one hit in 10 at-bats in the first four games of the ALCS. He had seven home runs during the season. He smacked three home runs against the poor Twins on Sunday.

In the game that sent the Angels into delirium, Kennedy was 4-for-4 with five RBIs. That's more RBIs than he had in all of July.

Kennedy is listed at 6-foot-1 and 192 pounds, and he might be that big if you stood him on top of second base. But the thing with the Angels is, none of that matters. His fellow middle infielder, David Eckstein, is smaller than that (at 5-foot-8, Eckstein can almost be smuggled into stadiums in the bat bags). The Angels are filled with guys like that, guys like Darin Erstad and Scott Spiezio and little speedster Chone Figgins. They have a pair of brothers, Bengie and Jose Molina, who share catching duties.

Sure they have some recognizable names. Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus have been All-Stars. Jarrod Washburn is a legitimate All-Star pitcher.

But the Angels have come together, simply, as a bunch of guys who do everything that manager Mike Scioscia asks of them. And, judging by the results, you have to figure that Scioscia is asking for just the right things.

"I think the important thing," Scioscia has said about a million times this postseason, "is for us is to bring our style of play into the game."

Yes, for Scioscia and the Angels, "playing our game" is paramount. What it means is simple:

Don't get all worked up about your first postseason (the Angels are woefully thin on postseason experience on their roster -- like that's mattered so far). Don't worry if some opposing pitcher is treating you like the infield grass early in the game.

The key for the Angels is sticking to what they do best, which is getting long at-bats, waiting for a pitch they can put into play then running around like the little rugrats they are.

Going from first to third. Sacrificing runners over. Hitting behind runners. The Angels do it all, all the time. Or at least every chance they get.

"They're playing the game over there," said Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire. "That's a great baseball team."

The Angels are not without their faults. They finished 10th in the AL in homers, with Glaus the only player with 30 or more homers (Glaus had exactly 30, while Anderson finished with 29). In the postseason, when runs are hardest to come by, a guy who can give you a run or two with a single swing is especially important.

But that's nitpicking, really. The Angels are a solid offensive team, with the best average in the AL during the regular season (.282). They also were the best pinch-hitting team in the league (.288). Couple that with a pitching staff whose starters were fourth best in the league (4.00 ERA) and whose bullpen was the best in the AL (2.98) and … well, you have the Angels in the World Series.

True, the Angels are not the Yankees or the A's or even the Indians. There is no sexiness to this team. The Angels are not high-gloss. They're just the Angels.

And they're in the World Series, with their little monkey, too. Like or not.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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